Think about your world in unimaginable ways. Use these worldbuilding prompts to help you think deeper. This collection offers sci-fi prompts and fantasy prompts for creative thinking.

General Worldbuilding Prompts

1. Describe your world in less than 250 characters.
2. Describe your world’s magic system in five sentences or less.
3. Talk about the different climate zones and the different beings .
4. What is your world’s creation story?
5. Favorite and least favorite thing about your world.
6. Describe the varying political systems of your world.
7. Your world’s prehistory?
8. How does your world end?
9. Describe the after life.
10. From your world, you can see several stars and constellations. Talk about some of the famous ones and their ties to mythology.
11. What real life cultures have inspired your world and in what ways?
12. What are the seven wonders of your world?
13. Who are the most notable emperors – talk about their conquests and their rise and fall.
14. Talk about your world wars.
15. What is the most unique thing about your world?

Fantasy Prompts: People, beings and creatures

1. What are your world’s good creatures?
2. What are your world’s evil creatures?
3. How were your world’s good creatures formed? How were your world’s evil creatures formed?
4. Describe your hybrid creatures – what they are, how they were formed and what their purpose is.
5. What are your world’s equivalence to angels?
6. What are your world’s cutest creatures?
7. Among each race, what are your world’s most favorite pets?
8. List five strengths and five weaknesses about each race.
9. Who are the heroes among each race in your world?
10. How are humans regarded in your world?
11. What is each creature’s gift/magic?
12. Who are your immortal creatures?
13. List your chemiluminescent/fluorescent/bioluminescent creatures and their influence on religion and mythology.
14. Talk about the culture of each race in your world.
15. Describe the religion for each race in your world.
16. Talk about each culture’s art.
17. What are the different foods for each race? Can other races eat these foods?
18. Talk about trade between different cultures and races – how has trade contributed to the overall social growth of each nation?
19. Any extinct creatures? Beings? Races?
20. Describe your world’s different guilds
21. If your world actually takes place on a space station or ship, describe how the people of that station developed a different culture compared to “land dwellers.”
22. How could someone become immortal in your world?
23. What are your world’s multi-headed creatures? Describe how they came to be, what they eat, their level of intelligence and their role in your world.
24. What are the most dangerous creatures in your world?
25. Describe your world’s cyborg/android/robot/coded beings. Talk about their physical characteristics, how they came to be, what their role is in your world, whether they are good or bad, etc.

Prompts for Magic

1. How is magic distributed among the individuals and beings of your world?
2. What are your world’s most powerful items? What is each’s story?
3. Who are your world’s most powerful beings?
4. Explain the dark side of your magic system.
5. Where does science come into play with your magic system?
6. Is your magic system religious based or science based or something else?
7. Create a simple illustration that easily explains/describes your magic system.
8. What is the origin of the magic in your world?
9. What are your world’s miracles? What differentiates miracles from magic?
10. Why does the magic exist in your world?
11. What people or beings in your world have corrupted your magic system?
12. In two sentences, describe your magic system.
13. Who are your world’s chosen people?
14. List out the different special powers individuals in your world possess (spells, healing, shape-shifting, flying), and who can do what.
15. What is your magic system based on?
16. What are the forbidden sources of magic?
17. Describe everything about the lost magic in your world.
18. What are ways to strengthen power/magic in your world?
19. What are the limits of your magic system?
20. Why can’t people take over the world entirely with your magic system?

Fantasy Prompts: Religion/Spirituality

1. What are the different religions in your world?
2. What is the primary religion of your world?
3. List your holy wars: Why they started, who won, what came out of it.
4. Who are the gods of your world?
5. How do people worship the gods of your world?
6. Describe the sacrifices and what they represent.
7. What are the greatest sins of your world?
8. Create an organizational chart of your holy leaders.
9. Who has more power, the monarchy or the theocracy?
10. Describe the afterlife.
11. Who is the dark power, what is their motivation?
12. Are there different “heavens” for the different creatures in your world?
13. Plot the holy days on a calendar.
14. Describe each religious holiday for your world.
15. What holidays are “holy days” and which are “work breaks”
16. Describe what holy people do to the sinners, pagans, blasphemers – those who go against the way of the faith.
17. Write 3-5 sentences about each god in your world.
18. List the different holy texts of each country in your world.
19. What are the greatest gifts of the gods from your world?
20. Describe the moments the gods have intervened to save one of the beings or nations in your world.

Landmarks, Buildings and Infrastructure Writing Prompts

1. Write 3-5 sentences about the 7 wonders of your world.
2. List out each trade route and its importance.
3. Map your trade routes. Include dates of when they were significant.
4. Describe your world’s walls – the walls to keep things in, and the walls to keep things out.
5. Describe your world’s major libraries including their architectural styles.
6. Detail the architectural styles for the following: Major palaces/castles, major religious centers, major learning centers, major transit centers and major museums.
7. Describe your world’s arenas and stadiums.
8. List your world’s guilds, their leaders, their structure and what they’re in charge of.
9. List and describe the most impressive buildings in your world.
10. List and describe some of the most famous ruins in your world – what were they in the glory days, why were they built, why are they in ruin?
11. List the major cities of your world and give one sentence about what they’re known for.
12. Describe the different prisons in your world – what are the best ones, what are the worst ones?
13. Who are the major artists in your world and what are they known for?
14. Map out where the major museums are in your world.
15. Describe the different government buildings in your world.
16. List the major mountain ranges of your world.
17. What is your world’s Mt. Everest?
18. List the greatest rivers of your world, and their ports.
19. Map out the delta regions of your world and how important they are to the races that live among them.
20. List your world’s islands from greatest to smallest (exclude super small sandbars).
21. Does your world have a Panama Canal equivalent?
22. List all the capitals of the countries and states of your world.
23. Where are your world’s deserts, rainforests, plains, tundras, etc?
24. Map out the volcanic regions of your world.
25. Where are the best trade ports in your world’s major country?
26. What are the mysterious landmarks in your world, where ancients built it but no one knows why?
27. List your world’s canyons, crater hits, glaciers, seas, etc.
28. Where are your world’s healing springs?
29. Does your world have a Fountain of Youth? A Lost City of Atlantis? List and describe them, and the people’s best guess as to where these places are.
30. Describe the most beautiful valleys in your world, or the most hellish ones.

War, Weapons and Military

1. Describe the war lords of your world.
2. List out each weapon in your world, what it is, who uses it (race, military rank, solider type), and what it was specifically developed for.
3. What is your world’s most famous sword?
4. What are your world’s military branches?
5. Create an organizational chart of each military branch based on rank.
6. How is your garrison sheltered? Fed? Stocked?
7. Describe a day in the life of an average soldier in training.
8. List the greatest battles in your world: When they were fought, who fought in them, wny they were fought, how the winner’s won.
9. What is your world’s Trojan Horse story?
10. Magic vs. Magic – how is a war won? 
11. How does someone become a soldier/knight/warrior in your world?
12. Who are your greatest, most feared warriors in your world?
13. Describe the mariner military.
14. What tactics provided the greatest advantages in battle?
15. List out military strategy that has inspired your world.
16. Describe the different military uniforms for the countries and branches within your world.
17. Describe the royal guard and the holy guards of your world.
18. For each country of your world, list all of its ships from smallest to largest, and detail what they’re known for.
19. For each country of your world, list the different forts and castles from smallest to largest and detail who built them and why.
20. Describe the different civil wars in different countries of your world.

Fun Worldbuilding Prompts

1. Detail the sayings in your world along with the stories behind them.
2. What are the dirtiest words in your world and the meaning behind them?
3. Give examples of using the worst insults.
4. What is your world’s equivalents to a: Yo Mama joke, Blond Joke, That’s what she said joke, and/or a Not joke? Give an example of each.
5. List the greatest diseases and epidemics that have hurt your world.
6. What is the best food to eat in each country of your world?
7. What is your world’s equivalent to Christmas and Halloween?
8. How would a person who is friendless, penniless, and only has the shirt on his back climb the ladders in one of the countries in your world to become a legend?
9. List the dirty jokes from one of the countries in your world.
10. List technological inconsistencies in your world (for example, your world has electricity but no running water, or planes but no cars).